Peter de Villiers has confirmed that John Smit will captain the Springboks at the World Cup.  Rassie Erasmus was appointed as technical adviser.

At a press conference on Monday, Peter de Villiers  confirmed the appointments of his captain and management staff. Smit will continue as captain with Victor Matfield named as vice-captain. Erasmus has been brought in as a technical adviser and conditioning coach Derik Coetzee is the other new appointment.

It comes as no surprise that Smit and Matfield will continue in their leadership roles.

Victor Matfield was named as Smit’s vice-captain and will probably end up leading the side onto the field in several of the games as De Villiers remains insistent that he will consider Smit only as a hooker, thus making it a straight choice between the captain and the impressive Bismarck du Plessis for a place in the starting line-up.

“I went for John and Victor because of their massive wealth of experience and the leadership ability that both have shown over a long time,” said De Villiers.

As expected, Stormers director of rugby Rassie Erasmus was named as a member of the management team for the World Cup, but the coach stopped short of naming him as his technical adviser, preferring to say that Erasmus would help with “coaching stuff”.

Nonetheless, Erasmus’ secondment onto the management on a temporary basis  is a major step forward in the Bok World Cup challenge, as acknowledged by the skipper.

“Rassie did a good job when he was with us as technical adviser in the build-up to the 2007 World Cup before he had to quit to take up his job with Western Province,” said Smit.

“He was a great player, a sublime talent, and he has a shrewd tactical and technical brain that will come in handy for us in the build-up to the World Cup.”

De Villiers also confirmed that Derick Coetzee, Jake White’s fitness adviser at the last World Cup, will also join the management for the World Cup.

“I am not sure that I am so happy about that appointment because Derick will make us work damn hard,” quipped Smit before adding that it was a good appointment because Coetzee would be able to identify the areas that needed working on ahead of the tournament.